Womans Trials | Page 6

young schoolmate that
makes your face so familiar. How much you do favour her, now I look
at you more closely."
"What was her name?" I asked.
"Her name was Flora S----."
"Indeed! Why, that was my name!"

"Your name! Did you go to Madame Martier's school?"
"I did."
"And can you indeed be my old schoolmate, Flora S----?"
"My maiden name was Flora S----, and I went to Madame Martier's.
Your face is also familiar, but how to place you I do not know."
"Don't you remember Helen Sprague?"
"Helen Sprague! This can't be Helen Sprague, surely! Yes! I remember
now. Why, Helen?" and I stepped forward and grasped her hand. "I am
both glad and sorry to see you. To think that, after the lapse of fifteen
years, we should meet thus! How in the world is it that fortune has been
so unkind to you? I remember hearing it said that you had married very
well."
"I certainly never had cause to regret my marriage," replied Mrs.
Partridge, with more feeling than she had yet shown. "While my
husband lived I had every external blessing that I could ask. But, just
before he died, somehow or other he got behind-hand in his business,
and after his death, there being no one to see to things, what he left was
seized upon and sold, leaving me friendless and almost penniless. Since
then, the effort to get food and clothes for my children has been so
constant and earnest, that I have scarcely had time to sit down and
grieve over my losses and sufferings. It is one perpetual struggle for life.
And yet, though I cannot now keep the tears from my eyes, I will not
say that I am unhappy. Thus far, all things necessary for me have come.
I yet have my little flock together, and a place that bears the sacred
name of home."
I looked into Helen's face, over which tears were falling, and wondered
if I were not dreaming. At school she had been the favourite of all, she
was so full of good humour, and had such a cheerful, peace-loving
spirit. Her parents were poor, but respectable people, who died when
Helen was fifteen years old. She was then taken from school, and I
never saw her afterward until she came to my house in the capacity of a
washerwoman, hundreds of miles away from the scenes of our early
years.
"But can't you find easier work than washing?" I asked. "Are you not
handy with your needle?"
"The only work I have been able to get has been from the clothing men,
and they pay so little that I can't live on it."

"Can you do fine sewing?" I asked.
"Yes, I call myself handy with my needle."
"Can you make children's clothes?"
"Boy's clothes?"
"No. Girl's clothing."
"Oh, yes."
"I'm very much in want of some one. My children are all in"--rags and
tatters I was going to say, but I checked myself--"are all in need of
clothes, and so far I have not been able to get anybody to sew for me. If
you like, I will give you three or four weeks' sewing at least."
"I shall be very glad to have it, and very thankful for your kindness in
offering it to me," returned Mrs. Partridge, rising from her chair, and
adding as she did so--
"But I must be getting home. It is nearly dark, and Jane will be anxious
to see me back again."
I handed her the seventy-five cents she had earned for washing for me
during a whole day. Promising to come over and see me early in the
morning about the sewing, she withdrew, and I was left again to my
own reflections.
"If ever a murmurer and complainer received a severe rebuke, it is I!"
was the first almost audible thought that passed through my mind. "To
think that I, with my cup full and running over with blessings, should
make myself and all around me unhappy, because a few minor things
are not just to my satisfaction, while this woman, who toils like a slave
from morning until night, and who can hardly procure food and
clothing for her children, from whom she is almost constantly separated,
is patient and hopeful, makes me feel as if I deserved to lose what I
have refused to enjoy."
On the next morning Mrs. Partridge called quite early. She cut and
fitted several frocks for the children, at which work she seemed very
handy, and then took them home to make. She sewed for me five weeks,
and then got work in another family where I recommended her. Since
then, she has been kept constantly employed in sewing, at good prices,
by about six families.